markets. Sir Robert Walcy Cohen and other contributors discuss in greater detail the progress that has been achieved in the citrus industry, in electrification, in the development of mineral resources, in transport and in scientific marketing: and hand in hand with this progress have gone an improved standard of living, the development of home industries, balanced budgets and a sound banking machinery.
“Clearly Palestine offers a market worth watching and worth cultivating. No one pretends that it is an easy market. There are three official languages: and in Jerusalem alone twenty-four different spoken languages. There is a large Europeanized community, and Western ideas are gradually being imposed on indigenous habits of living and working, although the demand is still large for staple commodities of a non-luxury kind. But competition is keen, and there is no room for haphazard salesmen. As with trade, so with finance.
“There is ample scope for investment in agriculture, in building, in the further development of natural resources, and in commerce ‘at favorable rates and with an ample margin of security.’ But Palestine has no more room for the frenzied financier than for the careless salesman.
“Still economically a young country, its further development will bring profits only to the careful investor and the inspired and hard-working trader. Fortunately, the prosperity that has come to Palestine in recent times has modified the political differences which two or three years ago led to bloodshed and rioting. Some of the worst economic effects of the political partition of the old Syria have been evaded by the Customs Convention between the new Syria and Palestine.
“In spite of the greater political freedom already granted to less highly developed neighboring communities, no undue haste is being shown in solving the ‘algebraical equation governed by a variable’—as the British Mandate has been called—by the imposition of a Legislative Council on a country with an active non-co-operative community. Greater care is being taken of the rights of the Arab fellahin.
“Economic differences still exist in Palestine, as they do elsewhere,” the editorial concludes, “and they will continue to exist. But so long as they are a reflection also of economic progress, there is some hope that they will soothe the fears of the more nationalistic Arabs, restrain the fervors of the more challenging Jews, and bring profit to all.”
The issue contains a number of articles, including “No Unemployment and no Debts” by Sir Robert Waley Cohen, “Oranges the Staple Export” by Mr. S, Hoofien, “Future of the Citrus Industry” by Mr. S. Tolkowsky and “Progress in Electricity Supply” by Mr. Pinchas Rutenberg.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
